Green Zhoug Sauce (Yemenite Spicy Sauce)
A fabulous spicy sauce from the Yemeni kitchen with coriander, parsley, mint, garlic, cardamom, cumin and coriander.
Print
Pin
Servings: ml (approx)
Ingredients
- handful fresh coriander roughly chopped (equivalent to about a cup)
- handful fresh parsely roughly chopped (equivalent to about a cup)
- 5 leaves fresh mint
- 4 jalapeno chillies or 2 hungarian banana chillies Banana chillies grow in the garden and are freely available, so my first choice. Use more or fewer chillies depending on your chilli tolerance😁
- 2-4 cloves garlic
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- small pinch cloves
- 30-50 ml olive oil
- 1 lime (lemon) juiced and zested (2 tbsp)
- ½ Kosher salt - start with ¼ tsp and add more to taste salt levels in sauces like this are very personal so I prefer to add less and adjust.
- good grinding freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Grind the dry spices with the salt in a small food mill or pestle and mortar. Add the garlic, chillies and teaspoon of oil and whizz to form a loose paste.
- Add the fresh herbs and drizzle in more oil grinding or whizzing until you are happy with the consistency. Add lime juice to taste. You may also need to add a little more salt.
- If you don't want the sauce oily - add water instead of oil together with the lime juice.
- This recipe makes about 150 ml but, that can vary depending on how much oil, lemon etc., you used.
Notes
It would be best to experiment with this sauce to find your preferred chilli and garlic level. The recipe is for a medium spicy sauce and not too salty. Add Aleppo pepper or chilli flakes if you want to up the spice level🔥 I also like to add a little orange zest but then I do like to add orange zest to everything😉
Big thanks to thequeenofsheba, salwasdeliciouskitchen, amiraspantry and bonappetit for authentic Zhoug inspiration.